


Self and Honor

by joyeusenoelle



Category: Oedipus Cycle - Sophocles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-17
Updated: 2016-12-17
Packaged: 2018-09-09 07:30:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,698
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8881423
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/joyeusenoelle/pseuds/joyeusenoelle
Summary: After Antigone's death, Ismene begins to question how her identity and her citizenship are entwined.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Meltha](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Meltha/gifts).



[SCENE 1]

CHORUS  
Such sorrow, that a child of Oedipus,  
Our former king and son of kings,  
Should die for pride and obstinate disdain  
For Creon’s will and his decree.  
Although King Creon chose reprieve at last  
It was too late; the child had died.  
Antigone, defiant to the last  
Seized death and went to Hades glad.  
Her sister, spared the fate but not the guilt  
Returns now from that grave.

[ISMENE enters.]

ISMENE  
I die  
A thousand deaths each time I think her name.  
I should have been with her inside  
That tomb; I should have wrapped the rope around  
My neck and spent my life with her.  
I see no reason now to persevere;  
King Creon thinks me mad. He may  
Permit this orphaned child to stay and grieve  
Or drive me from my home to be  
A wanderer, like King Oedipus was. 

CHORUS  
You live and yet are contemplating death?  
The Fates cannot have planned for you  
To take your life and end your father’s line.

ISMENE  
I contemplate and weigh my loss.  
My siblings are all gone, my father too,  
And mother, cursed by Fate and hanged.  
I could not honor them, and at the end  
There is no one to honor me.

CHORUS  
You speak too quickly; grief has struck your mind.  
Your haste and sorrow blind you now.  
Listen, now, to footsteps in the hall.  
Someone comes to ease your pain.

[CREON enters.]

ISMENE  
Why, Creon, this is a surprise. 

CREON  
I know.  
I come as bearer of bad news.  
Antigone has died by her own hand-

ISMENE  
/I/ know.  
I followed you and saw her tomb.  
I heard your cry, Haemon’s bitter strike.  
I hoped my sister could be saved.  
But no. A god could not have stayed her hand.  
Her hand, that threatened Thebes’s rule.  
Her hand, that wrapped the rope around her neck.  
She challenged Fate, and Fate replied.

CREON  
You do know. What shall happen to you now?  
The city offers you a home.  
In fact, the city offers you a gift:  
Or rather, I do, King Creon.  
Your sister was to be Haemon’s bride.  
With you I would be closer still.  
You would not suffer, would not want or fear  
If only you should take my hand.

ISMENE  
And be the wife of Creon, tyrant king,  
Eurydice so newly dead?  
What would the people say? And what would I?  
How could I treat my sister thus?  
An hour cold, you’d have me take her place  
And stand beside you, so that you  
Can justify a lineage from gods.  
I do not think that plan’s for me.

CREON  
I mean to save you-

ISMENE  
I don’t need your help.  
The city’s sought enough from me.  
I tried to follow laws, to honor kings  
And found myself alone at last.  
My father’s line will carry on in me,  
But not in seven-gated Thebes.

CREON  
Please stop and think, Ismene. This is not  
A stain upon your father’s name.  
I offer you a home, and not a stone  
To hang around your neck and bear.  
There’s no dishonor taking such a gift.

ISMENE  
There’s not to you. I see it plain.  
My sister fought and died against the law.  
She called me coward, shunned my gaze  
And at the end she disavowed my name.  
The last remaining daughter of our line?  
Then, I must take my place by force.  
I will not take your charity, my prince.  
This city has no place for me.

[ISMENE exits.]

CREON  
I tried - you saw, I tried - to make her see.  
I tried - you saw - to honor her.  
But she is like her sister after all,  
And reason holds no sway with her.  
Ismene, I am loath to see you go  
But I cannot force you to stay.  
Old Creon’s line remains upon the throne  
And Cadmus and his brood have gone.  
I should inform the people of her plan,  
However, so that we can plot;  
If Polynices is her model, then  
We should prepare for an assault.

[CREON exits.]

[ODE]

CHORUS  
The gods bring rain to roll  
Across the land.  
The raindrops nourish all  
The things they touch.  
The fertile land feeds wheat  
And cows alike.  
The olive trees fall low,  
Laden with fruit.

But storms bring thunder - fear -  
And lightning - fire;  
They sunder ships whose crew  
Have strayed from shore.  
Their clamor sends the sheep  
To flee the the flock;  
A shepherd might not bring  
Them back alive.

The whims of gods are mysteries,  
The whims of fate are darker still.  
Have sheep come loose and fled the storm?  
Or is the storm about to pass?

[SCENE 2]

CHORUS  
The child of Oedipus the King has left.  
She wanders out along the road.  
The cliff, where Sphinx held Thebans to her thrall;  
The fields, where Polynices died.  
We do not know her goal or what she seeks  
To gain from leaving Thebes and home.  
Ismene’s mind has hardened since she learned  
Of her rebellious sister’s death.

[ISMENE enters.]

ISMENE  
Since Father left I have not been this far  
Outside the fabled walls of Thebes.  
We used to come here when I was a child,  
And play among the olive trees.  
I cannot see the field from where I stand  
On whose brown soil the Seven fought.  
I’d rather leave the whole affair behind -  
My sister, brothers, father, dead,  
And just one city holding all the blame.  
The light begins to falter as  
Apollo falls behind the mountain range;  
It soon will be too dark to see.  
I ought to find a friendly doorway here,  
A cottage with an open cot.  
Here’s one, with hearth-fire burning bright within.

CHORUS  
What foreign fool is knocking now?  
All right, I’ll come and open up the door.  
What brings you here, late traveller?

ISMENE  
I ventured on the road too late and found  
Myself without a place to sleep.  
Have you a cot or bed where I can lay?

CHORUS  
I have a cot, but not for you.

ISMENE  
Do you reject me?

CHORUS  
Not at all.  
My cot is simply occupied.

[TYDEUS enters, blinded.]

TYDEUS  
Whose voice is that which carries through the gloom?  
It sounds familiar. Who is that?

ISMENE  
I am a traveler, and nothing more.

TYDEUS  
No, no, my ears have known that voice.

ISMENE  
Very well, if you must know the truth:  
I am Ismene, out of Thebes.

TYDEUS  
Aha! I knew you when you came to see  
Your brother at our wartime camp.  
It wasn’t long ago; you should not try  
To fool a friend or comrade so.  
But you are not a comrade, are you, girl?  
Antigone performed the deed  
Of burying and honoring my friend.  
Your brother. Was there no love there?

ISMENE  
How dare you! Polynices was a good  
And honorable brother. But  
The law prevented me from laying him  
To rest the way a soldier ought.  
I feared that Creon, King of Thebes, would see,  
Put me to death and that would be  
The end of mighty Oedipus’s line.  
But Creon is a petty man.  
He thinks himself a god who rules alone.  
His will is strong, but mine is too.

TYDEUS  
You make excuses, girl. I will not hear  
Your change of heart or change of mind.  
I hear what happens, even from this hut.  
Antigone was Creon’s bane.  
And now she lies, her soul in Hades’ grasp,  
For challenging the king’s decree.  
Instead you walk and live your life in peace;  
The King of Thebes has let you go.

ISMENE  
I begged, I begged to let me take her place  
Or die beside her, as was meet.  
I even thought of ending my own life  
And joining her in Hades’ pit.  
But there is strength in life. I know you know.  
And I have chosen life and strength.

TYDEUS  
Life is easy, if you choose it last -  
If the challenge is behind.  
You had an obligation and you failed.  
I do not trust your change of heart.  
If you had had your way, you would have left  
My brother Polynices out -

ISMENE  
He was my brother more than he was yours!

TYDEUS  
Not by the way you treated him.  
His bones and flesh deserved your best respect.  
You shunned him. And for what? To keep  
Your place in Thebes, your comfortable home.

ISMENE  
I thought that death was worse than life  
And so I made my choice, which I regret.  
I should have been there at his grave.  
I should have thrown the dirt upon his corpse.

TYDEUS  
You should have, but you failed. And now  
I hear your deeds much louder than your words.  
Your city placed above your kin;  
Yourself held highest, even above Thebes.

ISMENE  
That’s not the way it is at all.

TYDEUS  
You say these things, but fate has brought you here.  
This is the end.

CHORUS  
Tydeus, no!

[TYDEUS strikes ISMENE. She falls.]

CHORUS  
The stitching on your wound has come undone.  
See there, the blood that stains your robe.

TYDEUS  
Would Polynices see me and approve?

CHORUS  
You’ll see him soon. Ask him yourself.

TYDEUS  
My honor is intact, at least. Her death  
Redeems my dignity and face.

CHORUS  
I pray the gods restore to you your sight,  
Tydeus, so you see the cost  
You paid for precious dignity and face.  
Your hubris cost more than you know.

[The cloth falls from TYDEUS's eyes.]

TYDEUS  
Why - she is just a child. I thought her aged  
Like Polynices and myself.  
And I have cut her down to save my face.  
She left the city to absolve  
Herself of sin for which I cut her down.

CHORUS  
Your face looks pale. You should sit down.

TYDEUS  
No, you were right. I’ll see my leader soon.  
The wound is too severe. I’m done.

CHORUS  
And was your honor worth Ismene’s life?

TYDEUS  
In truth, I cannot say it was.

CHORUS  
Then fall, Tydeus, knowing you have failed,  
Your honor having brought you naught.

[TYDEUS falls.]

CHORUS  
When pride and wisdom clash,  
Pride often wins,  
But pride is rarely smiled  
On by the gods.  
A painless memory  
Is all we ask;  
The hands of gods shall bear  
Us to our fates.


End file.
